Must Haves for Designing Effective B2B Websites

B2B marketing has a different audience so it is important to effectively distinguish your business to business game plan.

13:18 26 January 2022

B2B refers to business to business interactions, as compared to B2C (business to consumer) interactions. B2B marketing has a different audience, different goals, and different strategies than B2C marketing, so it is important to effectively distinguish your business to business game plan. 

 

Why might a business engage in B2B marketing? Most companies rely on other businesses or manufacturers for their outsourcing, as it is quite uncommon to find a business who can maintain their entire process in house. Business to business marketing therefore is a principle industry that many rely on. The differentiation of B2B marketing from B2C began around the 1930’s when the Great Depression called for a revolutionizing of marketing in response to consumers’ changed buying habits; the understanding of what separates the two forms has only continued to grow since then, but the distinction is crucial to understand.

 

The place to start with B2B marketing is with a website where other businesses or organizations can get the complete rundown of what your company has to offer. If you are the person responsible for creating said website, you may be asking yourself where to start to make your efforts successful. It’s important to understand how a B2B website will differ from a B2C site because consumers interact with products vastly different than businesses do. 

 

In this article we will walk you through the must haves for designing an effective B2B website as directed by successful business professionals who engage in their own B2B interactions on a daily basis. Keep reading to find out what you absolutely must know when creating your website’s design strategy.

 

Understanding How to Reach Businesses

The first step in creating a B2B website that is effective is to start by knowing your audience. If you have only ever focused on reaching your consumers, you’ll definitely want to take a minute to understand the basics of communicating with the businesses on the other side of B2B. Even if you have experience communicating with other organizations, take a minute to absorb what the marketing experts have to say about successful B2B.

 

Knowing the Difference Between B2C and B2B

Gali Soudak, the founder and CEO of DAZE, one of Israel’s leading B2B digital marketing agencies, is an expert on communicating with and reaching a B2B audience because of her years examining the successful and not so successful strategies employed. Much of her company’s success is due to her understanding of the distinctions between B2C and B2B marketing.

 

“B2C is based on standard parameters like geolocation, interests, age, gender and so on,” says Gali Soudak, Founder and CEO of DAZE. “With B2B you have a completely different set of targeting parameters: job titles, industry, company size, annual revenue, and sometimes other parameters. The targeting already limits you on how to track them. Generally speaking, you are very limited with your targeting. Another challenge is the audience, and the marketing messages you can use. It’s a much more sophisticated audience, so the general parameters or tagline is not emotional and you have to understand who you are talking to. For example, if you’re selling to geo-plastics engineers, they are looking for a certain language that is more technical, so even if you convey the message through video, you still need to think of how to talk to this audience. In B2C it’s a simple language, more emotional marketing text.”

 

Utilizing Thought Leadership

Along with knowing how to effectively communicate with other businesses rather than consumers, Soudak also promotes the marketing strategy of thought leadership, which is a method for showing you have expertise in your field.

 

“We offer a channel we call Thought Leadership. Unlike many other agencies who are involved in brand awareness, generating content, inbound marketing, and managing company pages, what we do on top of that is that we take personal profiles of senior management, and instead of promoting a brand, we promote the senior management of that brand. What we found is that people like to follow people more than they like to follow brands. We call it Thought leadership but basically, it’s turning those seniors [into] industry experts. It’s different because all of a sudden it’s a lot of posting on groups and forums, debates and discussions, it’s a lot of content that is opinionated and personal. When you upload valuable content and participate in group discussions, you show your target audience that there are expert leaders in this company–thought leaders that your target market wants to follow; so soon enough you will start attracting inbound leads, meaning, prospects who start to ask you questions and want to consult with you or meet you. This means it’s going to be very easy to sell your products and services later on because these people are well nurtured, and they come with the knowledge that the people who manage this company are experts,” says Soudak.

 

Targeting Your Audience 

Another important element of business to business marketing is the way you target your audience. Lauren Kleinman, the co-founder of brand review company The Quality Edit interacts both with the businesses whose products she evaluates and the consumers who look to her for advice on their next purchase. This has made her well versed in how to reach both of her target audiences in the different ways they require.

 

“With B2B marketing, you really need to understand your audience just as much as you do with B2C marketing. I think a misconception about communicating with other businesses is that you will have a harder time understanding what they want from you, but it’s actually exactly the opposite. In some ways, it is much easier to narrow in on what the businesses and organizations you want to reach are looking for than it is with the many diverse consumers you might reach in B2C. Just think of all the vast types of people out there who you have to sell to, especially with a business like The Quality Edit, where we review brands that appeal to different audiences. In that way, we have to be well equipped to reach pretty much every person out there. When targeting businesses it is much less difficult to understand what their attributes are and how you can impact them,” says Lauren Kleinman, Co-Founder of The Quality Edit.

 

B2B Marketing is Still About Human Communication

More than just looking at businesses as a whole, even though as Kleinman points out it is a crucial consideration, you also need to target the individuals behind the company. Fred Gerantabee, the chief experience officer for the affordable reading glasses company Readers.com says that you must always remember who you’re communicating to.

 

“When people think of interacting in a business to business model they often feel as though it’s daunting, as though they’ll be contacting some high level business moguls. Firstly, remember that you are a successful business professional too and the goal of B2B interactions is for an equal and amicable business relationship between parties. It should be a mutually beneficial setup, so don’t worry about how large or intimidating another business may appear,” says Fred Gerantabee, Chief Experience Officer of Readers.com.

 

“Secondly, always remember that every corporation, business, and organization is made up of people just like yours is. Even though B2B may feel more formal in communication than B2C–and yes, it probably will be–you are still reaching out to humans. And humans, no matter how important a role they hold or how advanced their terminology is, still connect to others in the same ways. Think of B2B communication like a conversation between experts in their field but with a shared goal they would like to land on.” 

 

Understanding How to Design Your Website

So now you understand how to communicate with and reach out to other businesses in comparison to how you would with consumers, but what steps do you need to take to make your website accurately convey who you are as a business and what you can offer others in the same industry?

 

Start With Your Objectives

Daniel Patrick, the founder of the self named luxury sportswear and streetwear fashion brand recommends that you are clear on your business objectives before you move forward with designing your site.

 

“When implementing B2B marketing strategies, whether it be your website or any other area of your social presence, you should start by knowing your business objectives inside and out. Your objectives will structure every aspect of your company, from knowing your strategy for performance and function, earnings, growth, and productivity to what kind of businesses you’re targeting with your marketing. Before you begin designing you need to know what information you want businesses to understand about you, what you are looking for from them, what the unique challenges and requirements are that you face, what those are for them also, and your revenue projections, etc. Be clear on the big questions and then decide what you want to share and not share on your site. If you are working from a pre-existing B2B website, make sure these questions shaped by your business objectives are woven through your site,” says Brandon Lurie, Marketing Director of Y Meadows.

 

Be Clear and to the Point

Another difference between B2B and B2C that you can now incorporate your understanding of into your website is the motives of your audience. Jorge Vivar, the creative director for the hemp derived cannabis company Mode speaks more about the driving factor behind business.

 

“When reaching consumers, they often take enjoyment from being told why they should use your product, how it will change their life for the better, and what others are saying about your products’ positive effects–at least the kind of consumers you wish to interact with feel this way,” says Jorge Vivar, Creative Director of mode. “There is a lot of excitement for businesses about reaching these people, because you get to sell your product and your mission to them and hope to truly change their lives for the better. But when interacting with other businesses, their driving motivations behind working with your business are very different. In your B2B marketing, be clear and to the point about how much return on investment (ROI) businesses can hope to see because of your help. Place information about revenue at the forefront of your site because it’s something they want to know.”

 

Focus on Storytelling

Just because you shouldn't shy away from being matter of fact doesn’t mean you cannot also weave a journey for your website visitors to go on when they move through your site. Michael Brenner, the CEO of the Marketing Insider Group says you should be a storyteller when reaching buyers and executives.

 

“Many B2B brands spend a lot of their time and money trying to build the brand. And while there is certainly value in a strong brand, I believe that in today’s digital age, your employees are your brand. So logos on stadiums and sponsorships sure are fun and they make ego-driven CEOs happy. But I’m not sure they create the value that brand marketers think they do. B2B marketers need to become storytellers who can use data not just to tell the story we want to buyers, but also to sell the story we need to executives. B2B marketers need to be able to sell the business case for their ideas. The secret to this is empathy. Buyers don’t want brochures or banner ads. So let’s stop funding them. Executives don’t want to hear about what color our logo should be. They want to hear the value of our marketing programs,”says Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group.

 

Let Your Message Come Through

Omid Semino, the founder and CEO of the handcrafted engagement ring business Diamond Mansion is an expert on allowing his brand’s message to shine through their website. He reminds just how important it is to stay true to your values and communicate them every step of the way.

 

“Use your website as a platform to share your message to everyone who comes across your site, be they consumers or other businesses. At Diamond Mansion we source our diamonds from other respected suppliers and through every step of our process we want to ensure that those involved in the creation of our products are onboard with our mission. Entwining your values and message throughout every part of your website and social media channels should be a priority because if it’s at the center of everything you do, you want to make sure it stays that way through conscious collaboration and business interactions,” says Omid Semino, CEO and Founder of Diamond Mansion.

 

Use Video Marketing

Your B2B website can follow the same design and formatting principles as a website targeted towards consumers, which Phillip Montalvo, the director of marketing for antimicrobial odor eliminator business Azuna points out. 

 

“Just as with the proven effectiveness of video marketing when reaching consumers, videos produce results in B2B marketing as well because you’re still communicating with people, and people are 95% more likely to retain a message seen over video than read over text. However, the way you use video should vary from B2C somewhat depending on your audience. Short TikTok style videos are not going to resonate with organizations like they will with consumers, so make sure you do your research to determine the best way to reach your target audience,” says Phillip Montalvo, Director of Marketing of Azuna.

 

Include Infographics and Visuals

The same is true for incorporating other visuals besides video onto your website. Fred Gerantabee, the chief experience officer for eyeglass company Foster Grant recommends you incorporate visuals to draw visitors into your site.

 

“Use infographics and visuals on your website because they are eye-catching and draw a viewer into what you are selling them. Our website is bright and packed with visuals because each pair of glasses can be viewed from multiple angles, measured, and even virtually tried on. Visuals really help visual learners make a better connection with your products, and infographics offer a quick but comprehensive look at data or statistics. You better believe that businesses are made up of visual learners too, so don’t be afraid to go bold with your visuals,” says Fred Gerantabee, Chief Experience Officer of Foster Grant.

 

Detail Upcoming Events

Your website is a place where you can include details about your business and its mission, but also what kind of events you are involved in. An active business is one that really makes its name known amongst others in the field. Eric Elggren, the co-founder of the handcrafted leather goods company Andar suggests that you share upcoming events directly onto your website, although you should also advertise them on your social media pages and with your email subscribers.

 

“Your website should be a place where other businesses or organizations who are interested in doing business with you, want to see what you are about, or even just want to learn from your expertise can find upcoming events. Many businesses have found B2B marketing success with events that invite guests to join in, so if you have the ability to implement this option, it is highly recommended to you. On your site you should broadcast upcoming events such as livestreams, webinars, conferences, and any other virtual or in-person events your business is hosting or making an appearance at. You can also really build up the anticipation by including a countdown timer next to the additional info, and make sure signup is accessible by including registration links,” says Eric Elggren, Co-Founder of Andar.

 

Include Calls to Action

Your website should also inspire action out of your online visitors. A site that is flat and unengaging is far less likely to receive any kind of interaction from its guests. One simple way to inspire action is through utilizing calls to action, which Amanda E. Johnson, the chief marketing officer for innovative eyebrow care products brand TatBrow explains more in depth. 

 

“If you think about those websites where after navigating around and exploring their products you really feel inspired to make a purchase, you probably encountered calls to action while reading through and surveying their site without even realizing it. Calls to action, or CTAs, are persuasive, often urgent phrases that utilize strong verbs that tell readers to do something now. CTAs are proven to be highly effective inclusions to your marketing strategy, and you should have them scattered throughout your website in different phrases. Your goal is to inspire your site viewers into action whether it be filling out a contact form, subscribing to a communications list, making a purchase, or clicking to learn more,” says Amanda E. Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer of TatBrow.

 

Design an Appealing Website

The last key recommendation from our B2B experts is to make your website appealing by following the general, proven-to-be-effective website features that we know support a positive browsing experience on all levels, be it B2C or B2B marketing. These include visuals, quality, and site performance, text, and layout. Jack Gindi, the CEO of fine jewelry brand Pori talks about how the conventions of an effective website come into play for your site’s design.

 

“Regardless of what type of website you are creating, make sure you follow the hallmarks of good design and quality technology,” says Jack Gindi, CEO of Pori Jewelry. “It always rings true that any website you want people to enjoy visiting should be visually appealing, not crowded with too many colors or images but also not completely devoid of either. Whether your design is more simplistic or more bold, make sure it looks cohesive. And do be sure to include high quality graphics. Nothing screams ‘low budget website’ more than a page with nothing but blocks of text. Font can also play a significant role in making your website look more or less professional. Think about what kind of text you find on the websites you consider high quality. Just as important as the design is the accessibility of your site. Make sure it’s highly navigable and free from technical errors. Essentially, your B2B website should still appeal to consumers, because you are still selling your business to other humans, just a different type of audience.

 

“And of course, be sure to make your business’s message and goal for how you want visitors to interact with your company to be at the forefront. Contact information should be easy to locate and use as well.”

 

Takeaways

The most important takeaways regarding must haves for designing an effective B2B website is that you need to communicate with businesses in the way they want to be reached–which does differ from consumers’ preferred style–and yet some methods of communication and representing your brand can stay the same across the board, such as the way you design your website to include video, visuals, and a clear brand message. Use these tips from B2B professionals to launch your own effective website that shows organizations and businesses in the professional sphere the best you have to offer.